Stuart Island

Stuart Island w/Reid Harbor and Provost Harbor

Reid Harbor - Blue Bossa is that spec next to the trees

 12/10/10
To time the currents right, I had to leave early at 8am to get a faster ride to Stuart Island.  I figured that I would spend the night at Reide Harbor and get an early start to Sydney, BC. 

It was a windless passage to Stuart Island weaving through what looked like inaccessible islands north of San Juan Island. Going by Spieden Island, in between Rouche Harbor which is north of San Juan Island, and Stuart Island, it looked like all cliffs along the sides, yet I saw a few cars there.  I wonder how they get them on there….no sign of docks or piers.

Stuart Island is the most northwest of the San Juan Islands, and probably the most isolated.  Apparently there are 40 people who live on the island, but when I was at Reid Harbor, the only people I saw was a crabber pulling up pots.

Testing out my waterproof camera - I need a float for it!

Reide Harbor Park - lots of picnic tables

When I started to anchor, my chain jammed in the anchor locker, forcing me to use the other anchor, which uses a small length of chain and lots of line.  I’ve never had chain pyramiding and then collapsing on itself, causing it to clump, but it sure did it this time.  On Compadre, my parents boat, there was usually a person assigned to flake the chain while the anchor was being pulled up, so that this problem wouldn’t happen.  But for a single-handed person, I would have to pull it up while washing it (smelly mud in the chain locker is no fun), then drop down to flake the chain, then go back up and repeat the process.  Sounds like a future project to figure out how to solve this problem.

I meant to explore Reid Harbor, the south side of Stuart Island, by kayak, so I launched the kayak, and paddled around, not discovering any beaches or rocky shelf to land the kayak.  But there was a nice dock with picnic tables, however it was about 3 feet high, too high for me to get off the kayak, so I paddled back to the Blue Bossa, launched the dinghy, and motored back to the dock to walk around. 

Reid Harbor pier and dock

The island is typical of the northwest, being heavily forested and hard to see around because of all the trees.  I did find a clear spot on top of a hill and took some pictures of the bay.  The dock is situated on a somewhat narrow, but steep isthmus where it is easy to walk over to Prevost Harbor, a beautiful little bay north side of the island where I would like to take another trip– very interesting.  There are also some county roads that I would like to explore, but time didn’t allow me to do it this time.  Stuart Island is very beautiful and I will have to get back to explore it some more when there is a good weather window, which seems few and far between this year.

As the weather forecast was looking pessimistic, I decided not to spend the night at Stuart but to head on over to Sydney.  At the Port of Sydney, I found the customs dock, tied up, and called customs; they just got all of the information and that was that.  The marina assigned me to a really long slip next to a bunch of mega yachts, making me feel like a 2-bedroom single level house nestled in between huge mansions.   

The Port of Sydney is very ordinary; it felt like I was at a high-priced motel with not much amenities but with super modern construction.  I guess the only reason that I would visit this place again would be to enter thru customs in Canada before going north.  Unfortunately, because the weather got crappy with lots of rain and wind, I had to stay there for two nights before zipping back to Friday Harbor. 

As it turns out, I was mislead in thinking that there was a shop in Sydney selling used charts.  Oh well...